European commissioners say mobile roaming fees within the EU will end as soon as next year

If you live anywhere in the European Union, you'll be glad to know that starting next year, you will no longer be charged mobile roaming fees anywhere within the EU. The change, which may go into effect as soon as July of 2014, would apply to voice calls, texting, and data according to The Telegraph.

Currently, if you roam outside of your home country anywhere in the EU, you are charged roaming fees on cellular phones and tablets. A recent vote by European commissioners in Brussels would bring that to an end. The change will see a 2% loss in revenue for carriers.

They expect the death of roaming charges to typically wipe 2pc off mobile operators’ revenues, after several years of tightening regulations designed to put an end to shockingly high bills for holiday makers and business travellers. They argue that operators will gain in the longer term by customers using their mobiles more abroad, particularly to access the internet.

Regulators such as the EU and FCC have been looking into cell phone carrier practices pretty stringently lately with the consumers' best interests in mind. This is one example of that and it's good news for everyone.

If you live in the EU, how bad have roaming charges been in the past for you?

Reader comments

European commissioners say mobile roaming fees within the EU will end as soon as next year

Great news for EU dwellers. I wish the US would force an end to roaming fees here too. Even better, why not make that all of North America? For those of us who live reasonably close to the Canadian border, better just turn the phone off before even getting to the border. Those roaming fees could nearly bankrupt a person! Ridiculous. And for those who live near, or travel to Mexico, the same applies there, to my best understanding. It's time for roaming fees to be done away with everywhere. Permanently.
Here's to hope the EU has started a trend.

How bad ? Well bad to the point each time I have to call or be called from my workplace which is in a roaming area, I end up with my plan bill just doubled. And this is for say max 10 calls of 2-3 minutes a month.

This is really good news. Roaming charges previously have been a lot worse even than they are today. (I did have a nice section here outlining just how bad the costs previously were, but your brilliantly intelligent spam filter told me to remove all references to money!) Recently some carriers have introduced some really great roaming deals, e.g. Mobile network operator Three allow unlimited EU roaming data for (Another reference to money removed) a day. However, no roaming charges would be even better!

It's good news, roaming fees are a very high-profit (really ripping the customer) area for carriers. For those who have unlocked phones, it's only a benefit if you want to keep your home number while traveling, as getting a SIM and using it when in another country is trivially easy and cost-effective (except France can be tricky). So it really only affects those those who either must be reached on their normal number while traveling (e.g. Business) or who have locked phone. Although, with awesome prepaid plans, why someone in the EU (at least most EU countries) would buy a locked phone on contract (paying far more for the phone over 2 years) I'll never understand.

While I'm aware that some carriers have brought down their roaming charges considerably over the past 2-3 years, I very pleased that the roaming charges will be a thing of the past in due course. But you are right... these carriers will now be looking to recoup the impending 2% drop in revenue...and their shareholders will want to know how they plan to do this.

I did get charged a lot for using 150MB in London - it was Icelandinc volcano and Imwas looking up alternative flights to the US so I let my guard down. My carrier gives me now 80MB for a small amount and then they throttle me to 32kB but let me use it for a week. I dont quite understand what people do when they swap SIM cards you tell all your firends your temporary number?;)